Sunday, April 30, 2017

South - I'm sort of tired of scrubby
landscape and it is getting warm.

West – I'm sort of running out of
time and how can you leave Utah without seeing everything?

North – Lows in the twenties and snow
– no thank you

I guess that leaves East. ARKANSAS!!!!
But, but.... I have to cross Texas. Texas, the land of good highways
and cheap gas. Texas, the land of consistent flat and cow-filled
scenery. It took me two whole days to cross Texas at my current rate
of travel.

The first night, I stayed in Amarillo.
Right outside of Amarillo in a nowhere type of place is Cadillac Ranch where
somebody has put nine Cadillacs nose down in the dirt. People are
welcome to bring their spray paint with them and let loose their
inner graffiti artist. I'm thinking artist might be sort of a strong
word here. Maybe I should use the word preservationist instead of
artist because I'm sure that all the different layers of paint are
all that are holding these cars together.

Miko admiring her handiwork

Miko looking all noble

Down the road apiece, there was the 2nd
Amendment Cowboy. Not too sure what that is about, but they had
three Cadillacs nose down that were in pristine shape.

As I was driving from my campsite at
the local Amarillo Walmart to the Ranch, I passed through a suburban
neighborhood. One house had a rather large back yard and I look over
and see llamas. Llamas in suburbia. Wait – there are also zebras.
Then I see......a giant live one humped camel. In their
backyard!!!! Who does this in Suburbia? Oh, right – I'm in Texas.
I stopped again on my way back from the Ranch to take a picture of
the camel and I didn't see it. Figment of my imagination? I wonder.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

I have had an email correspondence with
a woman named Renee who lives in Albuquerque. She has a Class C
motorhome and just happens to be the sister of a dear friend of mine
back up north. Since I was in the neighborhood, Renee and I decided
to meet up. After a few discussions, we settled on Navajo Lake State
Park way up at the top of New Mexico. Miko and I had a blast and I'm
not just saying that because Renee will probably read this.

The road to Navajo Lake that I took was
like a roller coaster ride. You would go up a super steep hill, so
steep that the RV would start losing power and I would have to
downshift. Then when you got to the top of the hill, the road just
disappeared. It went straight down and not just a little down but a
long, long, long ways down. My stomach dropped out several times.

I arrived first and found a perfect
site who a couple of rigs camping together. The sites were very
close together which is probably why nobody else had taken them. For
us, it was perfect. We overlooked the Marina in one direction, we
had a nature view out the other direction and we had a trail that led
down the hill to the lake so the dogs could play in the water. Did I
say dogs? Renee shows up with the rest of her family – Peaches,
Haven and Whiskey (who I kept calling Molly for some reason). Three
of nicest dogs, two of which were big big dogs.

The Marina

The Nature View

L-R: Haven, Whiskey, Renee and Peaches

Miko is used to being the center of
attention when we walk around the campgrounds, but when we would walk
all four dogs, it was Peaches that everybody fawned over. Peaches is
part Great Dane and part Rottweiler and rather stunning.

We walked and walked and in between we
talked and talked. Renee is tremendously funny and given all that
she has been thru, one of the strongest women I've met. Amazing
person.

Beyond walking endlessly around the
campground, there was one trail that we wanted to hike that went back
into the mountains. There were supposed to be ruins back there and
also, supposedly some gold that some bad guys hid back in them thar
hills. We loaded all four dogs into the Mini Cooper and truth be
told, we probably could have fit in a few more puppies. We didn't
find the gold nor the ruins, but it was fun crawling through the
rocks on the top of the mountains.

They moved too quick so I couldn't get them all in the photo

After spending a few days at Navajo
Lake, we were getting a little bored. Even my next door neighbor,
Leroy, with his amazing biscuits and gravy could not make us stay.
It was back down south to a Corp of Engineer park called Cochita
Lake which was a little bit west of Santa Fe. I was only a couple
of miles away from Bandelier National Monument where I spent some
time earlier in the month. It was a nice park, overlooking the lake.
The best part was that I finally got to do laundry. There is
something so special and exciting when you get to come home with all
your clothes clean.

After a couple of days, Renee decided
that she probably should move on. She had a few appointments that
she couldn't miss. When she left, Miko kept looking for her doggie
buddies. Sad.

Cochita Lake

There was a New Mexico storm moving in - wimpy, wimpy - followed by five minutes of OMG rain. You can barely see the mountains in the background

Friday, April 28, 2017

I say goodbye to Abiquiu – I am
totally in love with this place. I think in all of my travels so
far, this is the longest I've ever stayed anyplace. I really hope to
be back someday.

I am heading north, about as close to
the Colorado border as you can get. I am on my way to another Junior
Ranger badge at the Aztec Ruins. I stayed at the Ruins Road RV Park
– the park itself is basically a big field with all the RVs lined
up side by side. I lucked out and got a spot (11B) that was on the
end so that I had nobody on one side of me. I also lucked out
because this park had full hookups and was only $20 a night. The
park was right on the Animas River and we could walk down along the
river. The river was almost to the edge of the banks and running
extremely fast. I watched a goose family take their little ones to
the water edge and I was afraid the little ones would be swept away.
Those plucky little guys jumped in and stayed right by the rest of
the family. They must have been paddling like mad to stay in place.

Following the path along the river I came to an old rickety bridge that I had to go under. I was surprised to see that somebody had been painting there.

Aztec Ruins – I was thinking this
would be just another ancient ruin but it turns out that there has
been some restoration done on the buildings. There was a little bit
of controversy about whether or not these ruins should have been
restored but as a latter-day tourist, it was much easier to imagine
how these Ancients lived day to day. It brought it more to life, if
you will.

Fun Fact: Although they are called Aztec Ruins, the people who lived and worked here were not Aztec. The Spaniards called all native peoples Aztec and in this case, the name stuck.

This is one of the restored areas. It is the underground Kiva where the Ancients held their ceremonies. I don't think they had LED lighting on the stairs back in the day. Actually, maybe they didn't even have stairs now that I think about it. Notice the ladders all around the room.

And now we have my attempt at being artistic. In the ruins, one room led to another

The Ruins

For my Junior Ranger Badge I had to draw a picture of different restoration methods. I chose to take a picture of a ranger restoring a wall. It worked and I got my badge

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

One of the places that Georgia O'Keefe
painted was a place that is a little northeast of Abiquiu. She
called it 'The White Place' but it's official name is Plaza Blanca.
It is actually perhaps a little more gray than white but who am I to
argue.

The area is owned by Dar al Islam: ' a
non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating greater
understanding of Islam among Americans of all faiths in order to
establish our commonalities and build stronger relationships.' Even
though this is private property, they allow people to come and
experience this very special space. Even better, they let dogs come
and experience this also.

Miko and I were the only ones out there
hiking. Perhaps it was because we drove out to Plaza Blanca mid
afternoon. Mid-afternoon – hottest part of the day. Add on to
this, the fact that these rock formations are white which adds a lot
of radiant heat. Miko and I soldiered on though and made it.

There were lots of little tiny slot
canyons and we followed a few of them. There was one slot where it
got quite narrow and there was a big step up – too big for Miko to
get up. I wanted to see where the slot went so I lifted Miko up and
had to scramble myself to get up there. Turns out this slot went
nowhere, we immediately rounded a corner and it was a dead end. I,
of course, had not taken into account that we had to somehow get out
of this slot – we had to get down this now giant step. Miko, being
the brains of the operation, knew that she couldn't make it. I tried
coaxing her and then I guess I maybe accidentally pushed her a bit.
She ended up sort of splayed out in mid air with her legs braced
against each side of the slot, hanging in mid air. I grabbed her
harness and pulled her back up. Sorry Miko. I then got myself
splayed out halfway down, reached out, grabbed her harness and then
lifted her down. I ended up sliding down a bit on my butt and we
walked out of that slot with our head held high as though nothing
happened.

Notice that there are no Red Rock
pictures. It is all about White Rocks.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Today is Ghost Ranch day. Georgia
O'Keefe bought a small plot of land in the middle of a dude ranch
called Ghost Ranch. I think Ghost Ranch itself is about 35 square
miles and Ms. O'Keefe spent many years painting the surrounding
landscape. The dude ranch was sold to the Presbyterian Church in the
mid-fifties and the church currently still owns it. There are
several tours offered at Ghost Ranch – I have elected to take a
Landscape Tour. This is a tour where you get on a bus and they take
you to various sites, show you the picture that O'Keefe painted and
then show you what she was actually painting.

I get to the ranch, walk up the steps
to the welcome center and tell a lady with a name tag and a big hat
that I am here for the tour. She rushes up, grabs me and gives me a
huge hug. “I'm so glad you are here – you are our only client
for the tour today” she says. Part of me thinks “Super”, while
the other part thinks “oh geez, now I will have to really pay
attention to everything that gets said”. Luckily, in the next
fifteen minutes, two other women spontaneously join the tour. Now
this is the perfect size tour group.

After a fifteen minute movie, we get on
the mini-bus with big windows and go through a gate which keeps the
plain tourists out. We are getting a behind-the-scene tour. Yay!!!
It really was fun – it was more of a conversational type of tour.
Kate, the tour guide would tell little anecdotes about Georgia and
her life on the ranch.

Such as:

Georgia bought a Model A for $650 but
she didn't know how to drive. One of her friends tried to teach her
but quit after Georgia ran into a barn. Another tutor was teaching
her and when he was asked if she was a good driver he said – Not
really, but she is fearless.

Ghost Ranch has many hiking trails that
I could take Miko on. I meant to come back on a following day and
spend time doing that but it was not meant to be.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Fro me, the whole reason to go to
Abiquiu was because it was Georgia O'Keefe country and I am a giant
fan of her work. I wanted to see where she painted, what drew her to
this area of New Mexico. I'm not sure the exact reasons that she
came, but I'm here to tell you that this is some of the most
beautiful country in the U.S. Of A. Wow and double wow.

I pull into Riana Campground which is
run by the Corp of Engineers. Because of my advanced age, I get to
camp here for half price. Eight dollars a night for a scenic
campsite and I get water and electricity also. I had planned to hit
the ground running but I found that sitting outside in the perfect
weather, staring at Georgia's pet mountain: Cerro Pedernal which
means Flint Mountain was throughly engrossing. I would occasionally
turn my lawn chair 180 degrees and look over Abiquiu Lake (actually a
reservoir).

View out the front of the RV

View out the back - this is Cerro Pedernal - Georgia's Mountain

My Site

I probably sat there for a day and a
half before I decided I should do more in the area besides walk Miko
when she became insistent. I thought that since it was Easter Sunday
perhaps I should go visit the local Benedictine Monastery of Christ
In The Desert. The chapel was supposed to be special and every
couple of hours, the monks file in and half sit on one side of the
chapel, half sit on the other side of the chapel and they chant back
and forth. This could be interesting, I looked at their prayer
schedule and found a time when the chanting was only going to be ten
minutes long. Keep in mind I am not a religious person at all.

Now the monastery is back in the
mountains about thirteen miles off of the main road. I left home
about a half hour early figuring that was plenty of time to go
thirteen miles. Probably take me about 15 minutes? What I didn't
take into account was that this thirteen mile road was a single lane,
dirt washboard road that at times hung precariously to the side of
mountains. Let us not even mention what happens when you meet a car.
Forty five minutes later I arrive at the monastery, it is hard to
see my car, it is covered with about fifty tons of red dirt. I
missed None(the ten minute long prayer session) but I was going to be
in time for Vespers.

The parking lot is a ways down the road
from the monastery and as I'm walking up the road, I met a young
woman in her twenties coming from the monastery. She stops me and
says how much visiting this monastery has meant to her, how it has
reaffirmed her faith. It was such a very intense spiritual
experience for her. She said “I wept”. She then gave me a huge
sprig of sage and hoped that my visit would move me as much as it had
her. I thanked her and walked on.

The Monastery of Christ In The Desert

Mountains Behind the Monastery

I had a few minutes before Vespers so I
went into the gift shop. There were monk made candles and monk made
carvings. Lots of monk made goods. I wandered along until I came to
a rosary display (nun made, not monk made). I was raised Catholic
and I remember my Great Gram teaching me to say the rosary. I
suddenly realized that I no longer remembered anything about it. I
walked up to Brother John, a very young monk and asked him if he
could help me remember how to say the rosary. He became very
excited, in a very quiet monk-like way and said “You want me to say
the rosary with you?” Not quite what I had in mind, but ok. He
started to show me and I don't know what happened but all of a sudden
I had tears streaming down my face. I felt very overcome with
emotion. I don't know if it was remembering Gram or the spirituality
of the place but I could not stop weeping.

So Brother John and I are praying
together, rather Brother John is praying and I'm crying and saying
words. He says "Hail Mary..............Full of Grace............" etc.
Meanwhile I'm going "HailMaryFullOfGrace" etc. I think perhaps my
spiritual lesson here is that I should probably slow down and reflect
a bit more.

It is now time for Vespers. Brother
John has to leave me quickly to get in line with the rest of the
monks. I go into the chapel and it is beautifully simple. There are
windows above the alter in three different directions where you can
see the mountains pressed up close to the monastery. There are four
rows of pews for the faithful or spectators and on each side of the
aisle, there are only two or three seats. I think the audience could
be about 12 people and I was one of them. I was definitely the only
heathen there.

The Chapel

The monks file in down the center
aisle, followed by the incense swinger and a priest (officiant) and
alter boy (monk). Turns out Vespers is not any ten minute deal.
Over an hour later, the service is done. It was interesting watching
the monks and even more moving to sit there and look at the mountains
outside the window.

I thanked Brother John for his
spiritual guidance before I left with my rosary in hand. It was now
6:30 and I was a little concerned that I might have to drive down
that dirt road in the dark so I hightailed it out. I need not have
worried, I got home before dark. Must have been cause I had that
rosary watching out for me.

Monday, April 17, 2017

I actually spent three nights here at
Heron Lake. There is nothing to do, nothing really to see. But it
was quiet. When I got there on a Wednesday, there were only a couple
of other campers there. One 80 year old guy who had a big old yellow
dog named Girlfriend. Just him and his Girlfriend. He volunteered on an antique railroad that ran
during the summer months. The other was a seventy year old woman
Named Cory. She lived in her small little Toyota station wagon with
two rescue Jack Russell dogs that people had abandoned in campgrounds
in Arkansas and Mississippi. She had been doing this for years and
loved the life. She had no tent or anything, it was just the car.
Lovely lady.

Miko and I just pretty much vegged out –
did some baby hikes, did some chores.

About Me

Retirement is grand!! I'm sorry I waited so long to get started on this phase of life. I used to travel all the time but then I got involved in the world of Icelandic Horses. That took up all of my time and money. I still have a couple of horses. I'm now trying to fit husband, horses and extended travels into the very limited 24 hours of the day. As so many others have said....how did I ever have time to work?